I know, I know, there's a whole mythology involving sales tax and driving distance that keeps some of you from venturing into "The Couv." But there are fantastic crafty resources up there! Make an afternoon of it, bring friends, visit Unraveled, and have lunch. (La Bottega is an excellent choice for that, by the way.)

And then, check out Main Street Bead Connection. One thing I notice about bead stores is that they seem to either specialize in one type of bead, or they carry lots of different types, but only a little of each. So I loved that Main Street had both variety and depth in their inventory. Let me illustrate...

You can find glass beads, both new and vintage...

And a great selection of gemstone beads, in some really interesting shapes...

And wooden beads, and shell...

And a nice wall of seed beads...

And a nice, sparkly wall of crystals, too.

There are also lots of findings, and vintage buttons, and books and mags. And there's a classroom in back - and our own Teresa Sullivan Studio teaches there sometimes, among lots of other talented artists. Main Street doesn't have a website, but you can call the store for information on classes: 360-750-1444.

Manager Diane Lauderbaugh and her staff are very friendly, and the atmosphere is very relaxed and stay-a-while.

Oh, and by the way, part of the store is devoted to clothing, hats, and bags which have been beaded, embroidered, and embellished. There are some gorgeous things here.

See? You'd drive for all that, wouldn't you?

Beth Barnett makes cute and useful small books. I love the simplicity and charm of her work, and I think her Rabbit Food Cookbook is a fantastic example of creative self-publishing.

Take a look at Beth's website, Beth Bee Books. And you can also find her on Etsy.

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What was it that got you started making books? I have always liked to organize and alphabetize things, and my books are related to this habit. Also, I wrote zines when I was in high school and college. At some point about 10 years ago when I was in college, I noticed the loose-leaf books rings for sale at the bookstore by the Ohio State campus. I started using them to make little journal books. I don’t know what students usually use book rings for, but they always seem to be at college bookstores. At first I just made my books with cardboard covers, but then I also used book board recycled from discarded 3-ring binders. I made a few for friends as gifts, and everyone really liked them so I kept making them.

It looks like there's a lot of handwork in each of your books. Will you describe the process of making these for us? The process is different for Rabbit Food Cookbook and for the blank books. In the last year, I created a new edition of Rabbit Food that started with laying it out in Adobe Illustrator. I scanned in all my illustrations and I even made a font from my printed handwriting to use in the book. I wanted to keep the same character of the earlier editions but have all digital files to give to my printers. Once I did all the pre-press, I found printers to work with for printing and trimming and contacts for materials and binding. I then parsed out the different jobs, screen-printing the covers myself in my studio. Once I got all the different components collated, the last step was to have them bound by a bindery. It was more cost effective for a small print run to do some of the work myself and get different parts done separately.

The blank books are a little different, though I just put the blank recipe book through a similar process as Rabbit Food to upgrade to die-cut, offset printed dividers. The design for my little address books still requires me to attach stickers for each of the divider tabs, and I like the look, but if I wanted to make a large volume of them I would need to look further into printing services for cutting and trimming. For both of the blank books, I’ve got to print the covers, collate the components, and attach the book rings, of course. The handwork makes the books unique and special, but there’s a limit to how much handwork I want to do. I am very happy to have someone else with a fancy machine do trim work for me in a few minutes that would take me days to do with my box cutter and paper cutter.

Tell us about the Rabbit Food Cookbook. How did that come about? Rabbit Food started as my own “blank recipe book” in college. I started writing down favorite and modified recipes, adding stamps or little illustrations along the way. At some point I realized it could become an actual book project. I started to produce it in micro-editions as a book in 2003, though it was basically a hard covered zine. I produced it on a scale of 50 at a time, and I kept reworking it and adding recipes. I finally published it in the current edition with an ISBN, etc. in July 2007. This time I started with 500 and worked with printers, which finally ended my love/hate relationship with copy machines!

You produce your books in small print runs. What would you say are the benefits of working this way? I am still growing my publishing “company” which is all done by me. I could have done a run of several thousand copies of Rabbit Food and had the covers printed commercially, but the initial investment would have been a really big deal. I decided to keep the books on a semi-handmade and self-published scale and save myself the stress of taking on that level of risk. Making all of my books on a smaller scale gives me more control over the process and gives them the handcrafted personalized feel. The small scale allows me to experiment and make improvements in designs more easily. Finally, whereas most mechanically bound books produced commercially by publishers are being printed & assembled in Asia, my small-scale endeavors are done locally in Portland, giving business to companies in the local printing industry.

What's your take on the difference between Art and Craft? I’d have to say that Craft has to have a dimension of usefulness as a tool or an adornment. It has to have something practical about it. In being practical and useful, good craft is not one-of-a-kind, it is reproducible for more than one person to use and enjoy.

Though I believe the definition of Art is loose and philosophical, I am pragmatic about what I believe is “good” art. Good art is well crafted and not necessarily useful outside of its emotional and intellectual usefulness. It is more unique and one-of-a-kind. There’s obviously a continuum between art and craft – at the worst, bad craft first lacks craftsmanship, though it also lacks artistic aesthetic and design; bad art lacks emotional and intellectual substance first, and also shows no apparent craftsmanship and skill.

What are some of your favorite creative spots in Portland? I do like going to just about every art store in town, and I love to drop in at local boutiques and see what kind of local and handmade things are for sale. I also have known the women behind Handmade Bazaar for several years and have always liked to go to their sale, whether I’ve been selling too that day or I just go to shop and chat with the other crafty people. I just did my first Crafty Wonderland and it was a nice experience too.

Brent Wear's paintings manage to be funny, charming, and a tiny bit wistful all at the same time. I love his cheerful use of color, and I have an enduring crush on Bird Pants Man.

See more of Brent's work at his website and Etsy shop, and also at the Black Wagon Gallery through early March.

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I love the cast of characters in your work! Have these birds and other creatures always populated your work, or have they shown up more recently? Most of the characters started showing up in 1998 after I moved to Portland from Kansas City. First there were the birds which evolved from canary-like birds into the toy-like characters they are now.

Bird Pants Man was a evolution from those guys around 2000, and soon after that the the "cast" grew to include a cupcake bird, a mechanical hummingbird, plus a host of real birds, a robotic love bird and a group of crow like birds that wear human clothes. Also steam trains, humans, and other random objects. (The characters and narrative definately point to a story, the first of which I am currently working on.) But there definitely was a dramatic change in my work before I moved to Portland. My paintings were much more sparse and varied, often murky abstract paintings and drawings. I'm pretty certain that the rainy Portland winters made me want to brighten things up a bit!

Your work is hard to define. On some levels, it's whimsical, and on others, it's a little wistful. How do you describe what's going on in your paintings? Yeah, i always have a hard time with that one. I would say they can very emotional and intense, and a reflection of my own life experience. They can run the gauntlet from happy to sad, sometimes in the same painting. I think it is a reflection of how I express my emotions through the medium: since I'm not so inclined to be emotional in public... I express it through paint.

A good friend told me recently that he can tell how I'm doing by the paintings I'm working on. It is definitely a form of personal therapy that I happen to share with the world and somehow manage to make a living from. The characters are whimsical, and whimsical is what I'm drawn to...but the emotion is always present. Once that I started seeing a narrative in my work, I could see the reflection of what I was going through or what I was seeing in the world around me. The emotions are not always pleasant or hopeful, and sometimes the sadness comes through. But in the end I hope that the effect is optomistic and thought provoking.

I also love the humor in your work. What role would you say humor can play in art? (I know - what a tiny little question!) :-) Tiny? No way thats a big one! Humor is one of the most wonderful things ever. Humor heals wounds. Humor is both disarming and a force for positive change. The ability to laugh is absolutely essential to human existence. Sometimes I use it to make fun of myself, so I don't take myself so seriously...in my life or my art. Other times to laugh at the absurdity of the human/world condition. Seriously one of the greatest joys for me is seeing one of my paintings make someone laugh. It helps me feel like what I'm doing is worth while.

On the Bio page of your website, you talk about the importance of being involved in your community. What would you say are some good services artists and crafters can offer their communities? There are so many ways you can give back. For an artist or craftsperson you can do that on so many levels. Artists can and do beautify their environment and community, it's almost second nature. It can be as simple as, for example: if you have extra money, buy a painting from an artist you like. Or a piece of clothing made by someone you know who makes clothes. Get into group shows and work with other artists or collaborate on a project or curate a show. You can also volunteer your time creatively to any number of non-profits for the arts around town. Once you start looking around the options are plentiful.

How would you say that "Art" differs from "Craft?" Thats a hard one to me to define and I must say that is a subjective experience for the individual. To me for a long time, the word "craft" made me think of popsicle sticks and pipe cleaners at vacation bible school. That was my own stigma against it, it implied something made in a haphazard fashion that was not very interesting. On the other hand "art" implied something pretentious and accessible to only the elite and privileged.

But I think now the word "craft" itself has been redifined as a kind of functional art. Nowadays a lot that I see out there that is defined as craft is very well made and innovative. Personally I think everyone should be able to have original art if they want it. So to me the craft movement is blurring the line, and perhaps expanding the definition.... and hopefully our appreciation and experience of what "art" is.

What are some of your favorite creative spots in Portland? Oh jeez, where to begin? p:ear, Shop People, IPRC, the City Repair Project, Reading Frenzy, Floating World Comics, Missing Link... Seriously I can't name them all because the list would be insane.

I must say that my favorite spot right now is where my studio is at the Egg art collective. it has been such an amazing transformative experience for me. its kind of like working in the middle of a circus. The great thing is that it is such a great cross section of mediums: clothing, visual art, and performance. It is also home to the Launch Pad Gallery and rehearsal space for MarchFourth Marching Band. The space has evolved over the years like a kind of creative petrie dish. It can get pretty lively in there and the First Friday art openings are always a good time. I fell very fortunate to have a place there.

When I first saw Heidi Lauman's work, I thought it was made with some kind of printmaking technique. Then I discovered that it's actually cut paper! Crazy-intricate cut paper, at that. I love its bold simplicity, and I'm in awe of the process. You'll definitely want to see more over at her website, Stripes & Plaid.

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How did you become interested in paper-cut work? I was first introduced to the cut-paper technique in my illustration class in college (dare I say, over 10 years ago, eek!). My illustration professor assigned a cut-paper project and it was like a light went on.... I finally found a technique that matched my illustration style. It was important to me that my work be bold with simple, crisp edges, and cut-paper became the perfect process for me. To this day, I use this cut-paper technique for logo and illustration work for various clients. I use other illustration techniques, but cut-paper has always been my favorite.

Your work is so intricate, it looks like it requires nerves of steel! Would you describe the process of making cut-paper art? I don't mind doing tedious and intricate work ... actually, I love that it requires lots of time and patience. I love sinking into a project and just pushing through until it's finished. Sometimes it borders on an unhealthy obsession!

I always start with a plan and my projects begin with sketches on plain white paper. After a few revisions in pencil, I then cut the design from the paper. The finished, cut piece is then made black by either painting it or coloring it with a marker. I then "fill in" the voids inside the line-work with other pieces of painted paper, sort of like a stained-glass project.

What kinds of things inspire your work? Simply put, my inspiration comes from the plants throughout the Northwest. For example, I spent a lot of time creating images (like the Seed Fruit illustration) that were inspired by a tree near a local library. For a few weeks in the Fall the tree was covered in bright green apples but only had a few leaves here and there on its thick, almost-bare branches. The other things that inspire me are textile patterns, and wallpaper and upholstery fabric motifs.

How do you define the difference between "Art" and "Craft?" You know, I used to struggle with the term "Craft" but it was purely a hang-up from college. The school I attended put a lot of importance on defining work as "Fine Art" but I found it was difficult to live up to such a lofty and suffocating term. I think some people feel that Art = Legitimate and Craft = Hobby, which is frustrating. Truly, I don't want my work to require a particular definition or title. The terminology is not as important to me... good craftsmanship and attention to detail are more important to the creative process than the attempt to classify or label the work.

What are some of your favorite creative spots in Portland? My favorite creative spots in Portland are the ones that make me want to become a better artist. The places that come to mind are the Japanese Gardens, The Chinese Gardens, Oblation Papers & Press, and Stickers Asian Cafe (LOVE the paintings and photographs on the walls). Also, I'm such a sucker for well-designed product packaging so I feel that grocery stores can be creatively charged... I love to wander the aisles and look at cool packaging!